


A Journey of Hope

by TehFriendlyXeno



Category: District 9 (2009)
Genre: Adventure, Betrayal, Combat, Commitment, Corruption, Enemies, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Friendship, Government Conspiracy, Hatred, Hope, Horror, Interspecies Awkwardness, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, Love, Loyalty, Malnutrition, Military, Prawns (District 9), Racism, Religion, Salvation, Space Flight, Speciesism, Starvation, Survival, Traitor, Voodoo, tyranny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-02-26 14:11:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13237383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TehFriendlyXeno/pseuds/TehFriendlyXeno
Summary: 2nd Lt. William Cotton Washington of the United States Marine Corps, is being assigned his next MOS down in Johannesburg to, "Keep the Peace" between the aliens and the locals. He's always been wanting to see and even interact with an alien, and the Corps is giving him the opportunity. Little does he know the Journey he's on will bring Hope to a people who are not of this Earth and will forever change his relationships, himself, and all Mankind.-Human male x female Poleepkwa in future





	1. The Lieutenant

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: This is my first fanfiction and story, so I'm sure there are bound to be some mistakes in my story; whether it be punctual, grammatical, or anything. But I will be doing my absolute best to make sure this story is preeminently delightful for all y'all's tastes. Constructive criticism is key here, so I would like to respectfully request that each reader thoroughly tell me what he/she thought about it and give me help and/or tips to improve my writing and storytelling skills or with the cultures of Johannesburg and the Poleepkwa in the District 9 universe; because I ain't going nowhere anytime soon. In conclusion, the timeline of this takes place a couple of years after the mothership stalled over Johannesburg, so the aliens are still allowed to roam some of the streets I assume. That is all, I really hope all y'all enjoy :3

**Inspired by the stories** : "Strings of Hope" and "Paradise Reclaimed". Both were written by the author: Mystic Blade

   
  
"Writing is a journey into the unknown.”  
        -Charlie Kaufman

    

     **Feeling** a hand gently shaking his left upper-arm, he jolted up, ripping him from a deep slumber. He hadn’t drunk any water in more than ten hours during his slumber, which was causing his head to pulsate painfully a few moments later.  
  Looking up with a piercing, pissed off gaze to whoever dared wake him from his wonderful nap, his face softened to see a young flight attendant, with a nervous smile looking down at him. "Sir? Wake up.  We have arrived at Johannesburg," she told him as soon as she made eye contact with the drowsy man covered with a large blanket. Not wanting to cause any problems, he returned the smile to her sincerely while noticing alarmingly, that all the passengers on the plane were gone except for him. The adolescent man spoke up to the female attendant while pulling the blanket off himself. "Thankyou ma'am, I'll be on my way immediately," he said with a solemn-like sleepy tone, standing up to fold the blanket, then handed it to her. Taking it with the same smile on her face, the young woman post-hastily walked off to the rear of the plane.  
  Starting to feel a little dizzy and lightheaded, he called out to the attendant, “Miss? May I have some water?” The young woman turned on her heel, fully facing him while walking backwards, giving him the ‘thumbs up’ sign, then continued on her way to the rear of the plane.  
  Stretching and yawning, he bent down slightly to look out the small window beside his seat; it seemed to be early evening.

  Taking out his pocket watch to check the time, the long hand was near the VI mark. His stomach did a backflip; nearly tripping over the seats to get his luggage from the curved, overhead containers, putting the watch back in his breast pocket. _Damnit!_ He thought, frantically but carefully easing out everything he owned onto the tiny aisle and seat, cursing himself for bringing so much when time was at stake currently, but being extra careful with his violin case.  
  Sealing the hatch overhead and squatting halfway down to grab his bags, he made off to the exit with tremendous haste. He did _not_ feel like getting hazed by his new CO (Commanding Officer) for being late. He _hated_ being late. His reputation was _relatively_ positive so far amongst his superiors and he wasn't about to let his standards fall now. _I'm a Marine, a United States Marine. I have never been late and I ain't about to start now...shit, where's my hat?_ He was at the open door of the plane, just about to step off onto the elongated platform connecting the commercial airliner onto the main building. Turning around completely to go back to his seat to retrieve it, he saw the same young flight attendant with his hat and a large plastic cup of water in the other, quickly pacing towards him. Stopping before the man, she smiled again at him, nodding. Taking his peaked hat and the water from her without a word, he returned the polite gesture as best as he could, but as soon as his face was clear from her, he let his face fall into a mild frown.

  Setting down the bags he had been carrying to put the hat over his head, making sure it was straight and tight, then downing the water gratefully. Smacking his lips and clearing his throat, he handed the cup back to her.  
  The man had been loathing to come here on orders to simply make sure the aliens in South Africa did not get out of hand. For the ‘prawns’ have been getting more bold in their attacks against humans since they arrived on Earth just shy of two years ago.

  His parents were of the same mindset as him when it concerned the prawns: they don’t belong here and they are causing a hell of a lot more problems than humans could do to each other.

  Not more than a few days after graduating from his MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) school as a Second Lieutenant, he received his first orders from the Commandant of the Marine Corps. And boy was he more than enthusiastic about it - that is until he saw where he was going to do his new job.

  The only good thing about this one however, was the pay; a full seven-thousand dollars a month. The Commandant’s formal letter told him straight-up, that he would be working face-to-face with the aliens and that his survival expectancy would be less than fifty percent. Hence why he was being paid so well.

 _Man I_ love _the Corps_ , he thought with heavy sarcasm, which was accompanied with a visible scowl on his face as he picked up his things and jogged down the airbridge.

  He would have much rather done his first four years as an officer in the Marines in an Embassy somewhere. Canada would’ve been nice, or maybe even in Italy. Or even the White House! Then he could ask President Reagan if ‘Star Wars’ was an actual thing and if he could sign-up. But apparently his grades weren’t up-to-par with the Corps’ high standards when it comes down to protecting the most heavily guarded home in the World.

  Frowning even more and silently cursing his relatively bad-luck, he continued through the airport, trying to avoid bumping into people and getting frustrated when he had to walk behind large groups of slow-moving people.   

 _Damn_ people _, hurry the_ fuck _up! I got places to be!_ He thought rampantly, but of course, he never said the negative things that processed through his mind and begrudgingly kept them to himself.

  He wasn’t known to be a very polite person, but he _was_ respectful to everyone he encountered, that was if they did not get on his bad side.

  Everyone seemed to look at him with wonder and pure curiosity; most likely from his black uniform with trim red lines running down his chest, shoulders, and cuffs, complimented by gleaming golden buttons, with the EGA (Eagle, Globe, & Anchor) anointed on the faces of each one. His face wasn't very 'ideal’, so what he wore made up for it. The uniform and sheer presence of a US Marine, was simply put: _stunning_ .  
  The man took on more of an ‘old’ look. His face was not one you would see everyday, as it resembled more of a common adult from 1800’s Southern America with an intimidating appearance. His jawline was steadily sharp until it took a small dive, possessing a minor crooked protrusion, then continuing its course to meet under his pleasant lips, joining together with the other jaw, forming his moderately bulging chin. Having a rather large nose, which was accompanied by high cheekbones; they stretched his heavily tanned skin across his cheek, sinking into his mouth slightly. The eyes of course, were his best feature; they had a remarkable bright hue of green, just about the shade of an Italian beach and they could without a doubt, woe any woman who looked him in the eyes for more than a few seconds. He was known to be quite a charmer at times.

  Having quite the large forehead, it only seemed to widen with his haircut, a standard Marines, ‘high and tight’. Overall, he was a very well-built person with a broad chest and strong legs, who stood at six feet exactly.  
  Looking up at a large digital clock, showing that it was five minutes until the hour struck six in the evening, he _really_ picked up his pace, excusing himself quickly to others he bumped into on accident.

<—I—>

 

  A bald, very strong man in full combat gear, leaned against a divider of the medium-sized glass windows in the stairwell.

  His gaze was burning holes in the door beside him, waiting for the American to meet him there.

  Ten seconds past and he looked out the windows but the view was unfortunately obscured by another building. Pivoting his head, he looked down at the large crowds going about their business, attempting to ward off the impatience that was steadily overwhelming him.

  Looking down at his wrist, he pulled back his thin sleeve, which revealed a wrist watch, indicating that it was one minute away until six o'clock. Roughly pulling down his sleeve to cover the watch, he sighed heavily, speaking out-loud to himself as he returned his sight to the muted crowds below, their conversations and bustles reflecting off the sound-proof windows, "Where is this fucker?" "Doesn't he know to be at least fifteen minutes early for a fuckin' meeting? Damn Americans.” His voice echoed slightly throughout the large stairwell.  
  Sighing again, he caught sight of two prawns walking together on the side walk out below, carrying ridiculously large sacks on their shoulders.

   _Probably stolen goods in those bags_ , he thought distastefully. People steered clear of the two large aliens; some of them flat-out sprinting away when they noticed they were walking towards them, some screamed and ran into random buildings, but some simply stood aside, giving them very unwelcoming glares as the they strode by with their grasshopper-like legs.

  The man squinted his eyes while crossing his arms in response to what he was seeing. _God damn prawns...always causing everyone so much fuckin' trouble._  
  The door behind him deafeningly burst open, the door slamming against the wall, unveiling the Marine who was heavily burdened by numerous suitcases. The man who was staring impetuously at the prawns, instantly spun around to face him fully, who was steadily advancing towards him.

  The American stopped on his left foot, dropping all his bags in two heaps, but carefully resting his violin case with it all, then briskly and sharply brought up his right arm, saluting the man, his pure white gloves just lightly kissing the black brim of his hat. "Sir! Second-Lieutenant, William Cotton Washington, of the United States Marine Corps, reporting in sir!" The Marine properly introduced himself to the man, who returned the salute nonchalantly, "Major Koobus Venter...you're new CO.”

  Koobus leaned his back against the window behind him, crossing his arms again. "As you were Lieutenant," he spoke grimly.

 

<—I—>

 

  William snapped his right hand back to his side, standing at ease with his chin raised up, staring straight ahead, being mindful as to not look into the eyes of the Major.

  In the military, you don’t ever look at an Officer in the eye when you’re either at attention or at ease. It was a relatively unwritten rule for lower-ranking militants to show to their commanding officers, that they are their subordinates.

  Although Lieutenant Washington wasn’t entertained by this rule at the moment, he did so with great reluctance. All he wanted to do, was report in to this Major Koober - whom he decided that he didn’t like the second he walked into the stairwell - and get in contact with his first platoon of Marines who were _also_ being transferred like he was, to keep the aliens in line.

  His first _real_ command. He felt childlike giddiness and almost let a smile paint his features at the thought, but quickly dispatched it away, in disinclined favor of listening to whatever Koobus had to say.

  Venter simply scoffed at the stature of Washington, dying to know why he was 'late' for he arrived mere seconds before six.  
  “Why are you late Lieutenant?" he asked with heightened aggressiveness, giving the American a constant disapproving look. He began to slowly walk around Washington - closely inspecting his uniform for anything wrong.  
  Expertly searching for the right words to say in order to appease the Major, he began to explain in a calm manner, not sure if he was telling the truth, but told him anyway. If he wasn’t, then Venter could go to hell, "Sir, the plane that was transporting me from the States earlier this morning, was very late to arrive. No other excuse was or is present sir."

  Koobus moved his left arm up, resting it on his right, using his left hand to softly scratch at his chin, still walking painfully slow around Washington, making him start to get a impatient. It was almost as if this South African was trying to make Washington _uncomfortable_ ; which he no doubt was trying to do to the Lieutenant. And if Venter was attempting to do so, he was doing a terrible job at it. This kind of ‘intimidation’ would have _maybe_ worked on him when Washington was an enlisted man in the Corps, but he’s been through fairly a lot of drill instructors whose looks were honestly much more terrifying than the Major’s.

  Stopping in front of William, Venter sighed, slightly nodding his head with approval, relieving Washington’s impatience, for he thought the Major was going to dismiss him finally.  

  Suddenly, Koobus unleashed a ‘knife hand’, gesturing towards the Marine almost threateningly, "If you're late one more time, I will personally see to it that I run you around this compound until you beg for me to tell you to stop, understood Lieutenant?! We don’t tolerate tardiness in _my_ command!”  

  Not another moment passed before Washington instantly replied with a booming, "Aye sir!", into Koobus’ face with equal force and without hesitation.

  If Venter was going to try and intimate _him_ , then he ought to work on it. Washington wasn’t impressed by his new CO’s behavior already.

  Many seconds went by as Venter’s eyes darted crazily across Washington’s face, trying to instigate _any_ reaction from the American. And when he got none, he relaxed by crossing his arms but he did not take his eyes off of this Marine, fresh from his MOS school.   

  "Good...now there are a few things you'll need to know when you settle in here," Koobus took out a small pamphlet from his pocket, handing it to Washington swiftly.

  "These are very important laws you'll need to know about living here. Make sure to commit them to memory before going out into public," the Major stated firmly.

  Taking it from his hand, Washington  nodded and slid the pamphlet into his pocket, "Will do sir."

  Koobus nodded slightly, turning his back completely to the American, returning his sight to the crowds below.   

  "Then you are dismissed Lieutenant. Report back to me - here - at zero-five thirty this coming Monday. And for fuck's sake, be a little early this time?"

  The South African waved his hand in dismissal to him with a slight scoff but Washington still hadn’t received any word on where and when he will meet up with his platoon of enlisted Marines.

  “Major? I haven’t received word on the whereabouts of the Marines that’ll be under my jurisdiction while I’m here.”

  Venter won’t even turn to face the Lieutenant, but there was a few seconds of silence as the Major seemingly processed his question thoroughly before answering stiffly with, “They won’t be here until tomorrow.”

  Washington _really_ wanted to strangle the Major right then as pressed Koobus for more info and he had to suppress the urge to speak with clenched teeth, “I’d like to train and operate with them for at least a week before we’re put to the job sir.”

  Another few seconds of annoying silence pursued before an answer was given.

  “There won’t be enough time for that Lieutenant. You won’t see them until you are back here this coming Monday. Dismissed.”

  Washington clenched his teeth together tightly while grinding them with a considerable amount of force with discontent and sucked on the insides of his cheeks before he saluted Koobus, then retracted it as fast as it had come up, “Aye sir.”

  Picking up his bags, he went back out the door he had come from, determined to get out of the Major's presence asap.   

 _I_ really _don’t like that guy_ , he thought as he made his way down an elevator and out into a busy hallway full of MNU (Multi-National United) employees. He made a mental note to just do what the Major says and not argue if he can help it.  
  Sighing gratefully that the meeting was over, he became anxious to exit the building to find his quarters where he would be staying at for the next four years of his deployment here. His quarters - he remembered - was actually a house owned by the US Government about fifteen miles away from the city.

 _An entire house all to myself_ , he thought with mock amazement and in attempt to abrogate what Venter had said about him not allowed to figure out his future Platoon’s combat capabilities were.

  However, he couldn’t try and lie to himself, that he definitely scored big on this MOS; the only _other_ reason why the Corps would issue any of their personnel their own house, would be if said personnel had a wife and/or kids. You could also be single and if you reached the rank of Staff Sergeant as an enlisted man, you’d become eligible.  
  Finding his way out of the HQ (Headquarters), he had to maneuver around the lively schools of people going to and fro. His arms were beginning to tire due to the trunks he had been carrying, so he went to a vacant bench residing next to the large street to rest his arms for a while; also deciding he’d take the opportunity to read up on the pamphlet the Major gave him.

  As he walked over beside the street, he accidentally stepped into the street’s gutter, where cars and busses of all different sorts sped by - only a few inches away but he quickly stepped back onto the sidewalk when someone blared their horn at him.

 _What the fuck am I doing? Just chill bro!_ _  
_   Letting out an exaggerated sigh, he set down all his personal effects onto the bench, sat down next to it all, crossing his right leg over his left, and made sure to keep his back straight at all times. He didn’t want to make a bad impression when he was wearing the Uniform of his Country while in a foreign land afterall.

  Stretching his left leg a little to allow access to his large, gloved hand to grapple the small, folded pamphlet within, he reeled it out.

  Looking down at it, he read the title, then opened it to the first page.  
  What he saw made him narrow his eyes in slight disgust but kept his eyes glued to the picture. His green eyes continued to squint in disgust and maybe even a little curiosity.

 _So that’s what they look like._ _  
_   Noticing that there was an underlined and italicized word beneath the photograph, he brought up the pamphlet closer so he didn’t have to slouch to get a better view of the word, which read out simply ‘ _Poleepkwa_ ’. Raising his left eyebrow at the name, he assumed that the prawns were actually called that. At least in English.

  The Lieutenant noticed that there was a gradual increase of people rushing past him for some reason but ignored them and continued reading beneath the photo and was slightly astonished, yet completely understood all the strict rules regarding human-to-alien interactions, which were extremely limited.  
  Some of these Laws stated that, “ _Physical contact with a Poleepkwa is forbidden unless having special permission to do so_ ”, “ _Sheltering, smuggling, and/or kidnapping Poleepkwa is forbidden on all fronts_ ,” “ _Conversing with a Poleepkwa is forbidden_ ”, and it even encouraged anyone who saw one to, “... _throw anything heavy at them if you feel threatened in any way by them_ . _Make sure to contact Multi-National United at (27-..._ ”.

 _Yeah yeah, common sense stuff._ _I’d probably be making the same laws if I were in charge. Who knows what kind of diseases those guys have. Yuck._

  Sighing with deep rumination, he looked back at the photo of the prawn with a renewed interest: he observed every...scale?, little and small, joint, tendril, and antenna. Paying close attention to the big, round eyes.

He squinted his eyes a little and looked closer at the prawn’s face and it seemed to be in agony or even distress when the photo was took.

   _Is that a tear?_

  The prawn’s eyes seemed to speak as if it was silently calling out to the viewer to help it.

 _Poor_ _guy must’ve been scared of the camera or something._

  Snapping himself out of the spell, he began to think to himself, _I’m wasting my time. I need to get to the house as quickly as possible._ _  
_   Right when he folded the pamphlet up and slid it down into his pocket, he couldn’t help but notice that people were beginning to sprint away from one side of the city block to the other. People kept pushing past each other rudely and Washington couldn’t help but stare and see what the disturbance was; who could blame him? He‘s been to plenty of urban combat zones to know when something was up. And this was just plain obvious.

  But first, he was worried that someone would accidently bump into one of his bags, so he lifted them onto his lap and around his legs, guarding the violin case predominantly.  
   _Man what the fuck is going on?_ He thought with growing annoyance; _today’s just not my day_. At that moment, someone’s leg knocked his violin case out of his hands when they sprinted by.

  “Hey! Watch where you’re fucking going you dumb shit!” William shouted angrily.

   _Now_ he was officially pissed and really wanted to know what the hell was going on, but he had to put all of his crap somewhere safe first.

  The civilian who accidently ran into his case, looked over his shoulder without stopping or even slowing down, as if he didn’t care, then continued on. Washington stood up, picked up all his luggage; not taking his eyes off the local who probably broke his violin when he knocked it down.

  Turning his head as he walked over to his violin case which was out in the street, he stooped to pick it up, then quickly raced back into the MNU building, being extra mindful of the countless panic-stricken people around him.  
  Bursting through the front entrance, his luggage bouncing off the doors and walls annoyingly, he prayed that the valuables he had inside wouldn’t be broken.

  He wasted no time in getting to the front desk, stopping in front of it but saw no one. Washington ‘patiently’ waited there for half a minute, looking behind him at the ever-increasing crowds before knocking on the wood of the desk briskly.  
  No one came after he knocked a second, and then a third time.

 _Fuck it_.

  Washington went around the desk in a half-crouch, stuffing all his belongings under it, then covered it all up with pieces of cardboard leaning against the back wall.

  Pacing back a few steps while still crouched, he examined it thoroughly to make sure no one would take notice of the things behind it, then he started for the door.  
  “Lieutenant!” He stopped dead in his tracks when he thought he had heard Koobus’ voice behind him, accompanied by dozens of pairs of loud combat boots rapidly approaching him on the double.

  Washington spun around on his left heel to face whoever called his name and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw Koobus leading a large group of MNU security forces, all of which were heavily armed with riot shields and possessed quite the diversity of weapons. He then noticed that Koobus held two automatic-shotguns, one of them had a spring bayonet on it.  
  Koobus was not slowing down, but veered off towards him to hand Washington the shotgun with the bayonet on it. Koobus slammed the apparent eight-gauge weapon into his hands, then gestured for him to follow, “Stay on my ass! We’ve got a situation!” Washington obeyed without saying a word, keeping up with the Major.

  Koobus raised his right foot, then slammed the door with it, causing it to swing and hit someone square in the face, body-checking the person. Koobus simply squatted down, picked up the guy with his free hand, who’d been clearly injured with a broken nose and blood spattering his eyes, and shoved him into the rest of the panicking people without remorse. Washington didn’t have time nor the inclination to judge Koobus on his action, for he was mentally gearing up for a full fight. _Something_ was happening that warranted a full unit of security forces to come sprinting out onto the street.

  Washington, the Major, and all the MNU security forces were weaving their way through the stragglers of civilians who ran from...whatever was happening. Washington did his best to not bump into anyone but was unsuccessful since everyone were all packed-in like sardines. All of the mercenaries including Washington, advanced about one-hundred yards before the fear-ridden people running away from where they were steadily advancing, completely thinned out to only a few stragglers who were all desperately trying to put distance between themselves and whoever or whatever they were running from. 

  He took notice that there was a steady increase amount of smoke that was lingering above and in front of them, which was originating from many cars and buildings on fire in front of them. The smoke was like a heavy set of drapery that blocked out all of the sun’s light in the West, forcing the lighting to a very dim and eerie setting.

  The cries of fear had completely died out now, leaving only the ‘soft’ roar of the fires crackling around them and the occasional whisper amongst the now-slowly walking line of hired gunmen, riot shields out, rifles of all kinds, poking out like sharpened spears.  
  Washington looked to his left and then his right, seeing that everyone, even Koobus, had a riot shield protecting them.

_Where’d Venter get that?_

  He suddenly realized that he was the guy in the front, tip of the spear, and was the only one without any sort of protection besides the eight-gauge shotgun with a spring bayonet attachment, leading everyone forward into whatever awaited them behind that thick curtain of smoke.  
  “ _Consider this your first assignment Lieutenant_ ,” came Koobus’ voice in a whisper behind him.

  Washington turned his head slightly to nod at him, Koobus just glanced at him, who was breathing slowly through his open mouth.

  Returning his attention forward, he heard an ear-piercing screech that was followed by a very loud hissing and rattle, but it definitely wasn’t mechanical, it sounded...almost like...Washington’s blood chilled when he saw numerous, very tall and lean dark silhouettes being revealed, side by side. Koobus shouted at the top of his lungs, “HALT! We stand our ground here boys! Let them come at us first!” Venter leaned to his side to whisper in one of the private contractor’s ears beside him with a calm yet sturdy voice while looking at the Lieutenant, “Let’s see what our new Marine is made of.”

  Washington heard the whisper, his heart beginning to increase in thumps. A standard emotional response to a fight that was bound to have casualties.

  He moved his left arm up the gun’s barrel, pressed a button, which instantaneously released a seven-inch blade that came out like a stiletto with a sharp ‘ping’.  
  The largest of the silhouettes raised its arm, which tightly grasped with what Washington could only make out as some sort of gun. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a better look at his first ‘prawn’ and he was _not_ enjoying the initial experience. The leader, from the looks of him, and the others who were lined up beside him, were still inked out by the heavy smoke.

  The prawn seemed to look straight straight at Washington, then raised its head up into the air, unleashing a low-pitched screech, followed by tens of dozens of angry warbles and hisses. Washington wouldn’t admit it, but he could swear that his heart stopped a beat.

  He raised the shotgun to his arm, aiming directly at the leader, hands beginning to shake slightly. The smoke was starting to make his eyes tear up. _This is not how I wanted to start my first day here.._

 

 _To be continued_ …..

 


	2. Friend or Foe?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope all y’all enjoyed the first installment of the story, I worked really hard at it. I am watching the movie many times, over & over again to make sure I get the settings for this chapter, and all future ones correct, plus the old archived ‘MNU’ & ‘MNU Spreads Lies’ websites (which are really cool btw). Anyways, this chapter will be much more interesting to indulge in and I have numerous ideas and plots written out for all future ones. So I hope all y’all’re ready for the long haul, because I plan on making this story into a full-fledged series. If I were y’all, I’d put my money in for excellent quality 20+ chapters with each one exceeding 6,000 words at least.  
> In order to satisfy my creative mind, I will be imagining my own ideas of the Culture(s) of the Poleepkwa in future chapters.  
> Remember, constructive criticism! Enjoy the second chapter ;)  
> And please read the quotes I have chosen to use...they are quite important and relevant for each chapter written.

  **WARNING:**

    This chapter contains very detailed depictions of combat and the emotions that flow through one's mind while fighting in a Life or death situation; you have been warned.

 

 

“In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is doing nothing.”

-Theodore Roosevelt

 

**_Monday, May 10th, 1984_ **

**_Two years after Mothership Arrival_ **

**_Johannesburg, South Africa_ **

**_18:50 hours_ **

 

  The leader who was enshrouded in heavy vehicle and building smoke, quickly launched itself forward at Washington, closing the distance fast, a mere seventy yards away. As soon as it charged, the rest of the prawns followed suit, making the concrete street beneath Washington tremble aguishly, nearly rendering his knees to a jelly-like state.

  Flexing his knees to ward off the static fluid, he instinctively moved a hand to pop out the drum clip attached on the bottom of the borrowed automatic shotgun to make sure it was loaded.

Seeing the eight-gauge red shells locked and loaded in the chamber, he slammed the drum clip back to hear a satisfying ‘click’, then returned his gaze forward, putting the butt of the deceivingly-small shotgun to his shoulder, confident that he could withstand the kick.

  While waiting for the leader to get within optimal range, Washington saw a blinding flash of concentrated blue and white light erupt from the leading prawn’s gun. The first shot fired from it, looked exactly like lightning, only coming in sideways and was interwoven with many other ‘arcs’ of lightning, making a loud, neutral humming noise. It made Washington’s ears pop as if he was too deep in water and the pressure was beginning to take an effect on him. This ‘arc-shot’ made contact with a man’s riot shield next to him which made a heavy _ding_ sound as it ricocheted safely into the ground, much like how a lightning rod captures lightning and sends the electrical energy into the ground to neutralize the strike.

  Almost immediately after that shot, many more began to light up their position through the thick smoke, which steadily swarmed them all while the prawns kept charging. This act made the MNU agents - including Washington - back. Some of these arcs of energy made contact with whoever was unfortunate enough to get caught and they exploded into a legitimate nothingness, sending gore _everywhere_. Other instantly died with the more ‘human-like’ projectiles fired from a different type of alien rifle, which sounded like a sliding plastic bracelet, with multiple beads against a wooden chair very quickly.

  Washington held his breath, crouched and aimed slightly up at the leader who was now thirty yards away, for its terrorizing gun was now unmistakably upon the Lieutenant.

  At that distance, he could clearly make out all the full details of the extraterrestrial, but did not have time to study it. The creature stopped suddenly, ten yards away, its gun whirring to life, a fiery orange glow emanating from the bore of the complex rifle.

  The prawn raised its arm, bracing the gun against its armored carapace shoulder plate, aiming directly at the Marine’s chest.

  Adrenaline instantly circulated throughout his body, physically feeling it pulse from his brain, down his spinal cord, and through his body, reinforced by the blood his heart provided, which raced a million miles an hour, reaching all parts of his body. Washington let out his kept-in breath with a yell, mustering all the oxygen his lungs could afford.

  He launched himself forward at the alien, practically sailing over the pavement, bayonet specified for the aliens throat.

  “Lieutenant! Stop no-“ Koobus screamed at him at the top of his lungs, but did not finish his sentence when Washington successfully drove the blade into the prawn’s neck with ease until he felt the blade hit something hard, not allowing him to push any further. Not wasting any time, Washington quickly twisted the bayonet, then raised his shined up dress boots, kicking the alien’s thorax and retracted the blade from its throat, spilling out blood onto himself.

  He readied to thrust the bayonet into its stomach to finish the job but stood still, observing his first alien-kill.

 _My old CO would’ve definitely be impressed by this_ , William thought with malice and affirmation when the prawn immediately dropped its weapon, making a heavy metallic clunking sound.

  The foreign weapon powered down rather quickly as it left the grasp of its former owner.

  The leader was still standing but grabbed its blood-tainted neck, trying to put pressure onto the fatal wound.

  Black blood began to spurt everywhere between the prawn’s large three-fingered hand, but that did not help much as its blood pumped out like a new water hose struggling to fill up all the air pockets.

  Washington took notice of the gurgling and intense wheezing sounds originating from the prawn’s badly damaged neck, most likely feeble attempts to draw fresh air into its lungs, but was rather filled with its own blood.

  The leader dropped to its knees, looking down at the pavement, not taking its hands away from its neck.

  Washington was honestly taken aback that it was still alive after the deadly blow he inflicted upon his adversary. So he stood up, raised the barrel of the shotgun to its head, then pulled the trigger without hesitation.

  The combat veteran never enjoyed seeing his enemies struggle for their lives when he had the opportunity to end them quickly. Bleeding out like that was painful - as he could imagine - as he did not see the point in elongating their suffering.

  The recoil hit his shoulder like a mule kick, effectively making a clean, straight hole through the leader’s head and body from a slug round.

  The prawn tumbled over in a lifeless heap, nearly landing on top of him but he darted out the way.

 _Okay the recoil wasn’t_ that _bad_ , Washington thought as he sprinted towards an abandoned building, glass shattered and all.

  The smoke that was momentarily holding its altitude above everyone was rapidly making its way to the ground, intermingling with the MNU soldiers, the prawns, and Washington.

  This made sight extremely difficult for all the humans, but the same could not be said for the non-humans that relentlessly clashed in on them, who were quickly pushing the MNU forces back while the Lieutenant, who was oblivious to the tide of the battle being turned against the humans, cleared the pulverized business to get a good vantage point over the prawns and reliable cover while blinking rapidly and coughing from the irritating smoke.

  His eyes were beginning to water like mad, but made his vision rather sharp.

  Treading carefully around the small room, which was a small cakery; he slid the shotgun down to rest on his hip, allowing more room to maneuver the deadly weapon.

  Satisfied that he was in the clear for now, he returned his attention outside, raising the shotgun to his shoulder again, lowering himself to a prone position while brushing away all the broken glass to avoid soiling his uniform furthermore.

  He kept both of his eyes open to absorb everything happening in the street, which was starting to alarm him when he couldn’t see Koobus nor any of the MNU forces; only the constant barrage of gunfire and the odd ‘zapping’ noises that made his ears pop again and other weird alien weaponry going off.

  He couldn’t see anyone, as the smoke was starting to get more thick and was only able to see the bright yellow and white flashes of the firefight being dulled out by the haze, accompanied with screams of pain from dying men and vicious, unnatural snarling from the prawns - save for many of them sprinting in front of him at inhumane speeds towards the hired gunmen, not noticing his stand-still form.

  His ears perked up when he heard Koobus’ voice yelling in the distance, “Lieutenant! Get your ass back here _NOW_!” Which was followed by three, separate shotgun blasts, and the gradual dulling and decrease of gunfire from the humans, proof that they were retreating from the ever-increasing aliens rushing past him with odd huffs which sounded like a winded horse and a snorting pig at the same time.

  “We’re falling back boys! Form up on me and protect the headquarters!” The Major shouted above the firefight.

  Washington wanted to shout back to let Koobus know he was on his way and lay down some possible cover fire for himself, but quickly stopped that train of thought, since it would most certainly get himself killed. The smoke was simply too thick to see more than ten yards and he was greatly outnumbered by an unknown number of aliens who would most probably not hesitate to kill him on sight.

  Speaking of whom; three of them suddenly skidded to a halt in front of the Lieutenant, nearly ten feet away.

  He took this opportune moment to closely observe them in detail while they stood there before him, their sudden and lively movements making his index finger twitch on the trigger guard in anticipation.

  Two of them wielded archaic weapons: one held a ragged Kukri knife that looked more like a letter-opener in comparison to its size and the other tightly clutched a huge chunk of damaged concrete in both of its claws. The lead one sported a similar weapon to the leader he killed about fifteen minutes ago, but it depicted multiple ‘cones’ attached to one-another, projecting from the rifle with an elongated part that jutted downwards and ran beneath the ‘barrel’ of the foreign weapon, ending with a sharp metal-like spike, pointing towards the bore.

    _I don’t like the look of that thing, I’ll take him out first, then the rest of his buddies if I don’t see anymore of their friends soon, then make a run for the HQ._

  This thought processed through his head in about one second when the lead prawn turned to face and fix its weapon in Washington’s general direction in less than half a second.

  He froze, limiting his breathing through his nose, and narrowing his eyes to avoid any possible light reflecting off of them which could very possibly make its way into the alien’s sight.

  It began to creep forward painfully slow with it’s grasshopper-like legs, which were mounted on the sides of its extremely wide, oval hips. The very alien pelvis sprouted to an unnaturally thin stomach that seemed as if there were no internal organs; only bone and muscle tissue making up the belly solely.

  Washington’s eyesight travelled up a little further, now a little enraptured by the prawn’s body structure, but not letting his guard down.

  The belly developed up to its chest or thorax, which was shaped like an oversized ostrich egg but possessed, namely a masculine appearance with faint semi-circles placed atop each other in a natural fashion. But the most interesting thing, were the pair of little arms that were contained in its chest cavities.

_The hell are those for?_

The prawn stepped onto a piece of glass, the weight of the extraterrestrial crunching the thick glass shard to nothingness.

  Washington’s eyes flashed down to its foot when he heard the crunching; he cringed from the sound, amazed that the alien could withstand the pain - if there was any.

  He noticed that the foot was much like the prawn’s hand, only thicker and tougher-looking with an additional digit to form four, instead of three like its hands. This might have explained why the alien didn’t show any signs of discomfort or disorientation.

  It stopped half a foot away from the bore of the shotgun in his possession, still tightly pressed against his shoulder, not daring to move the gun a single centimeter.

  He heard a deep and raspy snort being drawn from the now _too_ close prawn while the other two stood by, most likely keeping guard, looking to and fro.

  Washington slowly looked up without moving, noticing the breathing of the alien’s confusing neck which resembled a fish’s gills but more slick and dense. He concluded that these non-humans breathed through those folds, not through their mouths or any unseen nasal cavities.

  The prawn stepped directly above him, out of his eyesight before he could get a good look at the face - its legs placed firmly on each side of his head. For the only way to continue observing it would be to roll over his entire body onto his back, but then he’d just be staring straight at its crotch and he did not dare entertain the idea of what its sex looks like. He instantly brushed away _that_ train of thought.

   _If it hasn’t paid me any mind, it thinks that I’m either dead or it simply hasn’t noticed me_ \- _a foolish mistake._

  Washington waited until he knew the prawn was well inside the bakery, which made some sort of ‘trilling’ noise and heard the sound of sliding doors and crunches; it _was_ probably searching through the bakery for any food.

  The prawn made a sudden movement with an ecstatic and elongated warble; thinking that he had been spotted, he whirled around onto his back, shotgun trained on its back.

  Fortunately, he just saw that it was just sticking its head into a display case, reaching for something, its orange and white weapon on the floor.

  Washington hesitated to kill when he saw the prawn’s fatal mistake of letting its guard down, completely unaware of the human’s gaze.

  His finger lingered over the trigger, shotgun trained at the alien’s back, which was adorned with multiple, curved armored carapaces to allow movement for its head.

  Deciding against it, Washington _very_ slowly rose to his feet, careful not to brush around any glass while he gingerly made his way out of the empty business save for the hungry prawn still rummaging around.

  He began walking along the edge of the building, practically hugging it, successfully avoiding detection from the remaining prawns who weren't doing a very good job at guarding outside. That was until he turned his head to his left, peeping at the two unaware aliens as he kept walking, only five yards away. The bayonet, still freshly stained with black blood, scraped against the glass window of a neighboring business on accident, making a ‘nails-on-chalkboard’ like-sound but much more nastier. It sent shivers down Washington’s spine as he quickly pressed the button to withdraw the blade, making the same, ‘ping’ sound, which annoyingly worsened the situation.

  At the same time, the two prawns’ antennae flicked and shivered towards him as they looked over at Washington with an unimaginable speed, their eyes wide with what he assumed as fear. He guessed that they probably have never heard a sound like that before and never seen the likes of him as he increased his stride into a power walk, still staring directly at them, not willing to look away.

He cleared his throat, turning to fully face them in the most least threatening way possible by lowering the shotgun to face the concrete, walking backwards.

  Their forms slowly dissipated in the smoke, Washington opened his mouth, unsure of what to say, but decided to wing it, thinking that saying nothing would definitely spark suspicion, “What’s good E.T.?”

Before he could reminisce on what he just said, the Prawn with the hunk of concrete began running at him, being closely followed by the other with the Kukri knife.

_Fuck._

  Both opened their ‘mouths’, which had short and long tendrils, like a spider’s. Their lower jaws were not connected but rather split apart slightly, into two seperate mandibles below the tendrils, revealing their cavernous throats. They let out a similar screeching-rattle as the now-dead leader but with more of a hissing effect.

  The Lieutenant promptly squeezed his finger on the trigger, not letting go, as the wicked eight-gauge shotgun slugged round after round into the alien’s faces and bodies with devastating results - the monstrous kicks of the gun not ailing him in the slightest.

  The slugs impacted the prawns’ heads, causing their faces to implode on entry, effectively stopping their sporadic attack, bringing them to an awkward stand-still.

  The next few rounds were sent into their chests’ forcing the prawns to be sent reeling backwards multiple feet and onto their backs.

 

<—I—>

 

  Her antenna flicked and twitched towards the direction of the angry hissing a mere thirty yards away. Tasing the air with the same antenna, she tried to pinpoint the location of the emotions that emanated from her kind that caused the hissing through the thick, troublesome smoke.

  The female Poleepkwa took in a deep breath and let out a series of light clicks to see if she could get any response from them - nothing.

  She tried again but the only response she got were multiple, deep ‘blasts’ from the same direction. No bullets of any kind whizzed by, but the soundwave itself knocked the breath out of her and thumped her chest like a brick falling on it, forcing her antenna to flatten against her head in irritation against the soundwaves.

  On impulse, she dropped onto the concrete while keeping her head up and used her arms, adorned with a strong and unique carapace, to brace the impact.

  She lowered herself to lie flat on the ground quickly, the rifle she owned tightened in her grasp, propping it against her left shoulder in between the protective armor, scanning the dangerous area with inquisitiveness and a considerable amount of fear.

 _Fuck! Get ahold of yourself!_ She told herself as the non-human inhaled and exhaled deeply through her gills multiple times, trying to ward off the fearful pheromones that she knew were seeping out from herself and could attract much unwanted attention.

   _I wonder if humans can smell our emotions too - I doubt it._

  The female poleepkwa forced herself onto her feet, rifle still poised on her shoulder.

  She began jogging in long-elegant strides - closing in on where she knew where the hissing originated, nevermind the other’s from her kinds’ rampant and unyielding attacks on those _despicable_ Earth-dwelling species in the distance.

  Lilac began to hear faint steps on concrete, making her stop abruptly and took aim at the source.

  Risking herself by doing this, she let out the faintest of sequenced clicks, followed by a huff. The same pattern was repeated to her in a slightly different direction and variation with a deeper tone about thirteen feet to her right. But six feet to her left was where she heard the faint boots walking on concrete.

 _Fuck_.

  She connected the dots and came to the sullen realization that there was probably a human _uncomfortably_ close by and was likely another MNU security soldier lost in the haze.

  Lilac called out to her ally with a couple of guttural sounds, telling him to, “Come to me _quietly_ ” and “Be on your guard”.

  After waiting for what felt like multiple seconds and cringing after hearing him obnoxiously scrabbling around, he jogged out with donut crumbs clinging to his two mandibles and tendrils to meet the patiently waiting female - she was not amused. Narrowing her eyes at the male before her, she raised her rifle across her breast plate, beckoning in the direction of the retreating humans with a rough tilt of her head and sharp hiss, “Come! We must hurry if we are to win this fight!” The male Poleepkwa let out an annoyed warble followed by a monstrous rumbling coming from his stomach. He put his free hand over his belly with longing as he glanced back into the pillaged bakery. Lilac rolled her eyes at all this, but before she could force him to follow her, multiple deafening discharges of strong blasts went off to her left, rendering her hearing to a horrible ringing and sent millions of different grey splotches flying across her vision, forcing her to temporarily blackout and fall onto her bosom.

  Coming back to her senses seconds later, she briefly saw what was left of the male Poleepkwa, now lying on his back, gun still tightly clutched in his hand, twitching. His head was completely gone along with his neck, consorted with many entry wounds pillaging his chest.

 _The human,_ she thought with rapidly building vexation.

  Stumbling to her feet, she tasted the air again, finally pinpointing the troublesome and murderous Earthling in front of the now deceased body.

  Reinforced with a sense of triumph and anger, she let loose her best hiss with a followed up screech while raising her composite rifle, pulling the trigger with reason and charged forward.

  The salvos of plasma rounds mixed with other compounds, undoubtedly made their way to her target, as she was seeing human blood littering her path.

  But as she continued forward for a few more seconds, she ran out of ammunition, just when the outline of this _creature_ appeared before her. Hexing herself for not bringing spare clips and killing or weakening it, she threw her gun at the human like a stone.

  The weapon made contact with the human’s back, sending her enemy to the ground in a nasty fall.

  Chortling with victory, Lilac made her way to stand behind the human, forming tightly clenched fists with her three-fingered hands, preparing to do the worst while observing this alien which seemed to be in some sort of unique, black uniform; definitely not MNU. She didn’t give a damn.

  “Turn human, I want you to see this coming,” she clicked firmly with accomplishment.

  It let out a weak groan, almost as if it was trying to draw breath and speak but ultimately couldn’t.

 _I think my rifle knocked the breath out of him_.

  Musing at the thought, she took a step forward, performing a half-lunge and made to grab the back of its blouse.

  But to Lilac’s surprise, the human flipped onto its back, whipped out its own gun from underneath itself and the barrel was pressed against her forehead.

 _I am such a fool_ , was all she thought.

  All of this happened in an immaculate blur, effectively bringing down an overwhelming sense of dread for Lilac.

  Trying to shake the feeling off, she couldn’t help but stare down and look into this human’s eyes with clear ferocity; wanting to show it that she was _not_ afraid of her possible coming demise.

  Lilac gradually pushed her head into the bore, _daring_ the human to pull the trigger.

   _~Click~_

  Now it was the human’s turn to be filled with dread - she could see it clear as day in his eyes, still staring back at her when he pulled the trigger of the shotgun when it refused to fire.

  Not wasting a moment, Lilac grabbed the shotgun and wrenched it from this human’s vice-like grip - not that his strength mattered that is - and she threw it behind her as she prepared to slam her armored head into his, knowing that his skull would implode instantly against her’s.

  Bringing her head down to do so, the human rolled to its right, dodging Lilac’s intended blow to its head. Instead, her tough faceplate impacted into the Earthling’s back shoulder, causing the human to yell out in insured pain.

  Glancing to where it rolled, she was met with the sight of the human’s unexpectedly-quick fist, making contact in between her eyes. She was sure she saw pure pain shoot through the human’s arm and into its face when it contorted and when it reeled back its hand immediately after its strike.

   _This fool_ , Lilac thought with delight. She opened her mouth as wide as she could, spreading apart her two mandibles, making sure to reveal every fang from behind the curtain of short tendrils and ‘feelers’ to this damned human. This action was done to intimidate a Poleepkwa’s enemy and she was sure it worked fairly well.

  Hissing ferociously into the human’s face, she snapped her deadly mandibles forward to grapple onto its head in order to rip it off like she has done in the past many times. But to her annoyance, the human ducked too soon, narrowly avoiding her near-fatal attack.

  Instead of locking onto her enemy’s skull, her sharp - lower-mandibles latched onto its peaked-hat, snatching it right off its head!

  Frantically trying to pull it off of her sharp teeth, she saw the human in her peripheral vision getting up and sprinting away behind her, breathing heavily.

Lilac ‘spat’ out the human’s hat onto the painted asphalt with a final push from her concealed tongue.

  She suddenly heard the rapidly increasing volume of a human continuously shouting and running up behind her.

  She spun around, only to be met with the butt of the same damned human’s shotgun, coming down on her head like an ax.

  Feeling the full extent of the brutal impact for a brief moment, she tumbled down onto herself, getting knocked clean out.

 

<—I—>

 

    Washington stood there with the shotgun still tightly clutched in both if his sweaty and grimy hands, staring down at the prawn he had just knocked out.

 _Damn this one was stubborn_ , he thought with both admiration and fatigue after the short brual. He felt good - sort of.

  When the prawn had thrown its weapon at his back, it must’ve hit spot-onto Washington’s spinal cord because he completely lost control of his lower body temporarily, which caused him to plunge straight into the cemented ground.

  However, as he was falling, he made sure his shotgun would land underneath him so the hostile extraterrestrial couldn’t grab or kick it away unless it shoved Washington out of the way to do so - and that is what he was hoping for. But after it had just stood there behind him for a little while, he wasn’t willing to just lay there. He knew he wasn’t going to get the same chance to sneak away like last time, so right before he rolled to take a shot at the hostile, he heard it start to make a bunch of clicks and guttural noises, a little more _lighter_ than the other prawns he had heard, who were apparently talking with each other.

  He attempted to say, “I don’t understand” but the only thing he was able to mutter, was a weak groan from the impact of the rifle and landing flat on his chest. His thought process was similar on what he tried to say, _I have no idea what you’re saying._

  Once the prawn got too close for his liking, he flipped onto his back in the knick of time to push the barrel into the forehead of it. He planned to pull the trigger immediately when he got face to face with it, but hesitated after Washington pulled the trigger and when it didn’t fire, fear shot through him. Everything that followed afterwards was quite painful and when he had rolled out the way in attempt to put distance between himself and the prawn’s coming attack he foresaw, he thought he was going to die when it had slammed its head into his back, multiplying the pain that was already present in that area.

  Coming back to the present, by blinking rapidly and taking a deep breath, Washington looked around himself, and began to start coughing from the ever-increase smoke.

 _Shit, I’m going to suffocate if I don’t get out of here_.

   Quickly running his options, he knew he would be taking a huge risk of making a mad dash towards the HQ because he might get caught in the still-raging firefight around him, but he was more than willing to take a hopeful gamble with his Life rather than doing nothing, and doing nothing at this moment in time would ensure his death by asphyxiation.

  Flipping the eight-gauge around to fit snugly into his left arm once again, he took off in a flat-out sprint towards where he remembered cautiously walking from earlier.

  Using the tip of the shotgun to pick up his mauled Officer’s cap, he took it off the bore and put it atop his head, not slowing down.

  The burdensome smoke was so thick now, he couldn’t see more than five feet in front of him. Washington was beginning to cough with each inhale of breath, not able to get a fresh batch of air.

_Fuck me! Fuck me! Fuck me!_

  He knew he was about to blackout from a lack of oxygen because his head was starting to get rushed with blood. It was weighing him down greatly and the increasing number of black ‘squiggly’ splotches appearing at the edges of his eyesight did not help. But he kept on pushing, one leg in front of the other, desperate to get out of the haze.

   _Damn I ain’t ready to die! Please fuckin’ get me out of here! Don’t you fucking_ **_dare_ ** _take me now!_ And by the Grace of God _or_ by coincidence, the smoke was thinning out quickly as he kept on sprinting. Seeing - metaphorically - a burning fire of Hope at the end of the tunnel, he kicked in the extra turbo, pulling the strength to go faster straight from his ass. The black spots in his vision were now constant, they wouldn’t go away even when he was moving into fresher air, with his vision began to sway.

  He knew he was getting close to the battle line of MNU security forces due to the increasing number of bullets whizzing by like angry hornets and the yelling was getting _much_ louder. Mustering all the breath he could, Washington practically screamed at the top of his lungs, hoping not to get caught by a stray bullet or get blown to atoms like some others he witnessed, he shuddered at the thought. “FRIENDLY FIRE!! HOLD YOUR FUCKING FIRE GODDAMNIT!!”

  Almost immediately, the human gunfire seized, except for the alien’s own weaponry. He was finally able to see fellow humans lined up behind stalled vehicles. He saw someone standing atop a large MNU truck, waving his arms frantically at him, gesturing towards him to, “Keep coming!” and “Don’t stop!”

  The same man standing atop of the truck, was Koobus, who at that moment shouted at him, “LIEUTENANT, GET DOWN!!!” Washington foolishly looked behind him to see why and saw a rocket propelled grenade screeching directly towards his face, a mere ten feet away. Not having enough time to even look forward, Washington dropped onto the concrete.

 The momentum he had gained while sprinting, sent him grinding into the street, effectively tearing through his dress blues and agonizingly cutting up his arms, legs, and chest.

  He never let go of the shotgun though, nor did he plan to when the RPG whistled and screamed deafeningly where his head was not more than half a second ago. The rocket penetrated the MNU truck in front of him, forcing its way deep into the military-grade vehicle, but did not detonate thankfully.

  Washington quickly forced himself to stand up with the back of his hands, not wanting to get any dirt or bacteria on his torn palms that throbbed and burned achingly, in fact, he felt like he was on fire _everywhere_.

  Jogging to the line of men, he slinged the shotgun over his shoulder, struggling to stay conscious, despite the injuries he sustained and the near-fatal asphyxiation that seemed to be taking its toll on Washington's vision and head.

 _Sometimes, I wonder why I’m still alive after all these years_.

  As he walked in between two cars that had been crushed against one-another, an MNU APC (Armored Personnel Carrier) rolled up, nearly splattering Washington but he luckily had about five seconds to spare as he side-stepped out the way, as the armored car crushed the two vehicles with ease.

  “You’re one hard-ass fucker Marine.” Washington turned around on a dime with bloodshot eyes that pulsed painfully like the rest of his scarred body.

  Seeing that it was Koobus who was giving the compliment, he stiffened but did give the Major his attention. Koobus’ words did not have an effect on Washington whatsoever as he cleared his throat, straightened his posture to answer Venter with, “Thankyou Major...us Marines do not die unless given permission.”

  The Lieutenant was surprised, to hear a genuine laugh originate from Koobus, “Right, well you need to go back into the Headquarters...you look fucked up.”

  It wasn’t even more than five minutes at this point from when the RPG had imbedded itself into the personnel carrier, that Washington felt like he could continue fighting. A renewed sense of raw strength flowing through him - ready to take on those prawns.

  However those words mildly slapped Washington's sense of pride, so he quickly replied with, “No sir, I’d much rather stay and fight with all y’all.” The gunfire from both sides was picking up expeditiously, but Koobus stood his ground firmly yet _sort of_

calmly with clenched teeth, “Listen Lieutenant, I gave you an order, follow it.” And with that, the Major was jogging and clambering to the top of the same MNU truck with Washington stared longingly at the fight that the Humans would probably lose without him.

Shaking his head at the Major’s order, he begrudgingly walked into the Headquarters’ front entrance, the same one he entered almost an hour ago to put his things away.

  Upon entering the building, he felt a violent tremor beneath his feet and whirled around to look outside and saw that the tank just got blown to smithereens by _something_.

Whatever it was, the culprit was definitely not any low-grade explosive, that’s for sure. And with that unfortunate event, the hired soldiers began to pull back at Koobus’ order. Washington smiled at this and made his way out the spinning doors of the HQ with a confident stride to the Major, giving him a wide smirk.

  Koobus clearly did _not_ like Washington's silent attitude at the moment and beckoned with his arm for Washington to fall in formation for a tactical retreat. The Lieutenant was quite knowledgeable when it came down to knowing hand signals, so there was no confusion.

  After moving the whole line back a good fifty yards to get behind a large barrier of severely damaged civilian vehicles, everyone took a defensive position, shoulder to shoulder, shooting the prawns dead as they came into view. These MultiNational United guys knew how to fight and they clearly demonstrated it that day with an eventual and _costly_ victory at around ten o'clock at night. Out of around three-hundred and forty MNU Militants who took part in the fighting, only sixty-nine were left, including Koobus. Non-human casualties were unknown but the Mercenaries imagined that they got _at least_ a thousand, which Murrey concluded as bullshit, since he knew that most soldiers tended to overestimate the amount of kills they got in a blinding firefight like that.

  Koobus came over to the Lieutenant to congratulate him and told Washington that he, “Looked forward to fight future battles” with him. Washington returned the sincerity of Koobus’ statement with great reluctance. The Marine still didn’t trust his superior Officer and had good reason not to since Koobus. The Major held practically wore two signs on his chest and back stating, “I will stab you in the back.”

 

    **_4 hours later….._ **

 

    Lilac groaned meekly with a deep guttural groan from her weak form that was splayed limply across the cold and wet concrete.

  She guided her three-fingered hand to where she was hit with that shotgun a few hours earlier, subconsciously tracing circles and other random shapes with different pressures on the throbbing spot, keeping her eyes tightly shut. She was doing all of this in attempt to cast off the pain that was currently exploding like fireworks with every wave of blood her heart sent to her head.

  Daring to peep open her eyes ever-so slightly to take in her surroundings, she noticed that it was completely dark out, save for the dying fires from multiple human vehicles and buildings in the vicinity.

  The street lights were not functioning, which wasn’t surprising due to the prolonged firefight that happened earlier, and the thick smoke had completely dissipated to only whisks and small clouds. So she could see endlessly until some unnamed object blocked it out of view.

   _Odd...I don’t see anyone or anything...time to get moving before someone_ does _show up._

  Before Lilac started to get up and get out of the area, she made one last sweep with the limited range her eyes could roll, then _very_ slowly got onto her feet, knowing that if she got up too quickly, she would probably topple over and blackout from the pain radiating from her head.

  As soon as she was standing on her own two feet, she was hit with a sudden dizziness that added to the already present pain in her head.

_Fuck! I need food!_

  She started towards the nearest building to regain her balance, almost losing it by the swaying of her vision that made her walk side to side. She nearly fell to the concrete but safely made it to the brick wall with loud _slaps_ caused by her slim, yet large three-digit hands when she put all of her weight onto it.

  The female Poleepkwa took in many, long breaths of fresh air through those complex gills she possessed right above her natural, armored breast plates.

  About two minutes later, she felt as if she had regained her balance by supporting herself against the solid brick wall. She gently pushed off of it with ease, shifting all of her weight to the bend in her legs, then re-proportioned her weight to the rest of her legs and feet.

  Lilac looked around and started to lightly walk along the sidewalk she was now on, hugging the walls of deserted businesses, looking inside each one in hopes of spotting some food and possibly water.

 _There_ has _to be food around here...it is all_ so _much better here than in that damnable District._

Not realizing she was snailing up towards the MNU Headquarters ever so slightly when searching longingly for food and drink, human activity was picking up drastically with every step she took in that direction.

  She picked up the scent of what she had been searching for for the past ten minutes now, which was in a small building that looked pretty similar to all the other attached buildings on the sides a few yards away.

  Lilac got on all fours, pressing her body into the sidewalk that contrasted well to the buildings’ white-washed color, and creeped along to get directly below the display window.

  When she got underneath the lip of the glass, she flattened her antenna so they wouldn't be seen by anyone who could possibly see them from inside.    

  Ever so cautiously, Lilac raised and stretched her armored head, peering into the blackness of the business for the delicious smell that was coming from within.

  Her antenna were still flattened against her head in extreme tension that someone hiding inside might shoot her on sight. She dipped her face as low as possible, just enough to allow her eyes to look inside, so just in case someone _did_ shoot her in the face, the bullet(s) would ricochet off of her hard, carapace faceplates that sported an ugly color of jet-black from constant physical abuse from MNU soldiers and fighting. The blackened plates did not contrast well to her natural white-light grey carapace.

  Once Lilac got a wide enough view of the near-pitch black interior, she let her eyes dilate, which was only a moment regarding that the Poleepkwa are used to acutely dark environments, which explains the species’ natural bright and colorful eyes.

  She scanned over the interior intently with a bit of haste, considering that she was still hungry and dehydrated, which was having its effects on her.

 _Finally_ spotting what she had been ‘smelling’, Lilac unintentionally let out a loud happy warble and couldn’t contain herself from rapidly flickering her antenna against the display window to confirm the scent.

  She didn’t care if there was anybody around to see her, she was so hungry and thirsty, the Poleepkwa would get what she required so badly at that point in time.

  Lilac got up quickly, almost losing her balance again from the unrelenting hunger pains striking her already thin belly, which were being sent in tidal waves to her stressed mind and the strained dehydrated state she was in, forced more blood to her head, making it feel like a bowling ball.

  Once she was in, she didn't even bother closing the door behind her as her sight resorted to tunnel vision, focusing only on the food and multiple water bottles that lay patiently waiting for her to claim.

  Running into the hard and sturdy countertop in full speed, she wasted no time in simply stretching out her neck, in raw excitement along with her antenna, which pecked the sirloin steak and nearby water bottles numerous times, tasting the deliciousness of the red meat and water. She reached for the raw slab of thick steak first, that was rather farther back on the counter with her many tendrils and pulled the meat into her mouth to work her sharp, lower-mandibles’ teeth to tear the meat apart into smaller pieces, then swallowing each one with little effort. Almost each part of the sirloin that travelled from her throat to her digestive system felt like a rock going down, but was _so_ good nonetheless.

  Once she finished with devouring the food, she heard many sudden muffled, ‘thumps’ that were _way_ too close in her present proximity in the small diner. Thinking fast, she gathered the returning strength in her thighs from the steak, and leapt clean over the countertop to hide herself from whatever made the noises.

  Keeping her hands on the topside of the counter so that when she landed on the opposite floor, she would use her upper-body strength to brace her fall when her feet hit the ground without the slightest sound.

  On the other side, Lilac again forced her her antenna to lay back on her head, keeping the tips of her three-fingered hands on the edge of the countertop for stability while she crouched, peering over it to search for the origin of the disturbance.

   _Where did that come fr-_ her thoughts were interrupted by some sluggish movement disappearing on the opposite side of a large framed human vehicle with four enormous tires that obscured her view annoyingly, followed by a slight lurching and groan of the vehicle towards her.

 _Come on…show yourself human!_ Lilac knew that it was probably hiding from her behind the truck. She quickly began to wonder if the human spotted her and was hiding behind the grey vehicle.

   Her patience had reached its limit when nearly seven minutes went by in an excruciatingly slow epoch. However, she let a few more minutes tick by and by then, she was confidant that the earthling wasn’t going anywhere.

  She jumped over the countertop in a clean leap, using her strong and wiry arms to give her momentum on the elevated bar.

  Once on the customer’s side, she quickly swiped four water bottles from the counter, squeezing them firmly yet softly in her left hand so they wouldn’t make that annoying _crunching_ noise the plastic containers tend to make when too much force is exerted on them.

 _Humans and their pathetic ways of storing water_.

  Still not seeing any movement from where the human was ‘hiding’, Lilac swiftly jogged to the the edge of the still open door to try and get a line if sight and then proceed to kill it - if possible.

  Setting down the water bottles on the glass and dust-littered, tiled floor, she rested her hands on the door frame, bracing her body against it, leaning into the open as far as her neck will stretch with wide, open eyes.

_Fuck! I still can’t see the damned thing!_

Deciding to risk it, Lilac tentatively got on all fours and cautiously padded over to the rear of the large human vehicle.

  Reaching the tailgate and using her core strength, she raised her upper body from the ground, keeping herself hunched over so she was in relative cover, and tucked her arms over her chest. Taking two steps forward, she was now at the edge of the tailgate.

  Just before leaning forward to peep around the taillight to get a good look at the human, she glanced forward and nearly fell back in correlative shock. Before Lilac, was the central bane of her and her people’s existence on this confounded planet. For MNU Headquarters was sitting right there, _right fucking there_ with a considerable number of local policemen, employees, and some of the remainder of MNU soldiers who survived the battle only hours ago.

  Lilac’s first instinct was to rush in there like a maniac and take out as many humans in there as possible without mercy, but stopped herself from doing none of that, because she knew that she wouldn’t be able to take them all out. But she wanted to go back home - see it again in all of its glory. She had a life to live.

  Thinking over that last fact while staring at each human with pure hatred, she mentally willed the pain in her head go away temporarily, which took a bite out of her pride tremendously.

  ‘Snorting’ in disgust with herself at sparing humans, she came back to her senses as she detected in her left eye’s peripheral vision, the human she was potentially hunting, lean off of the truck’s side and started to walk towards Lilac in a slow trudging-way, keeping his sight on the MNU building. Taking this small window of opportunity, she came to the sullen realization that this human was the _same_ one who she had almost killed and the same one that had almost killed her.

  Thinking rapidly, she dropped to the asphalt post-haste and rolled underneath the truck as much as the truck could offer.

  Lilac had to mind her back’s natural spikes when she had to roll onto her back once, and it would feel like they were being pushed up into her. So she stopped to lay on her left side to watch the earthling’s strange footwear, as it slowly put one foot in front of the other as it continued walking the length of the vehicle.

  The human stopped farther to the right, so Lilac had to _carefully_ flip herself onto her right side to keep her eyes fixed on its badly scuffed and dull shoes.

  The truck’s door was opened, and she saw the human raise its leg, stepping into the vehicle, then its other leg disappeared into the interior, and the door was loudly closed - making her wince in annoyance.

  Sensing what was about to happen, Lilac rolled out from underneath the truck and got into a low crouch position in the same spot behind the pick-up, careful not to show the top of her head and antenna to the rear window.

  She desperately wanted to hide on the left left side from all the human activity going on no more than fifty yards across the wide street, but then she would be in plain view of the damned human in the truck if he looked to his left a little. Taking her chances, Lilac simply stood her ground there, keeping her hands on the painted concrete beneath herself for extra stability, not wanting to put her hands on the strange vehicle, for it might cause something to go off or make a loud noise.

  Out of nowhere, there came a sudden and obnoxiously loud growl from the truck starting, which made Lilac flinch hard and sent her heart racing. It felt like it was going to burst out of her chest at the sound of the ignition the human’s vehicle made, but she did her best to calm herself as she decided what to next.

 _This damned human_ will _pay for what he tried to do to me...but I can’t kill it here...I’ll have to follow it to wherever it is going._

  She sighed with great agitation, knowing that she will have a hard time finding her way back to the District once the reprisal she would inflict upon this human was satisfyingly finished.

  Lilac heard the truck make sporadic noises, like greased gears suddenly grinding against each other noisily. Soon following that, a rather large puff of black smoke shot out of a metal pipe close to her face, then the truck lurched forward unexpectedly, rolling away about half a foot, then lurched forward again, slowly gaining speed, the same gears making that noise again, only elongated.

   _Oh no you don’t!_

  Lilac got up from her still position, getting on all fours like a panther would, and promptly ran a few yards, matching the slow speed of the truck.

 _I hope it won’t feel the weight change_ , Lilac thought grimly, as she pushed herself off of the concrete, using her core strength to raise herself up.

  Now she was running on two legs, bringing forth both of her arms to settle on the lip of the tailgate, keeping up the momentum gained from running on all fours.

  The grey truck was going faster, so she had to increase her stride, which was now at a good twenty miles an hour and increasing. Though she could sprint at a constant thirty miles per hour, that was her limit and the human’s truck was really picking up the speed. Pressing her weight gradually on the end of the tailgate, she eventually catapulted herself off of the asphalt, her hands still gripping the tail tightly, her entire body, for a brief moment was pointing straight up to the nighttime sky, the wind whooshing by while in a handstand with the truck was going a little over thirty miles an hour and increasing. Very carefully and delicately, she let herself fall backwards into the bed of the truck; this action would be insanely difficult for any human being to perform, but this particular Poleepkwa had a few gymnastic and athletic abilities built into her agile and slender body.

  Taking many deep breaths as the vehicle mildly shook and bumped along the asphalt - it all reverberated throughout her body, which strangely put herself at ease and almost lured her to sleep. With the addition of the cool night’s air flowing over her as the truck continued to go faster and eventually settled on around forty miles an hour with the occasional stopping and turning, she was more tempted to just...rest; after all, she had been fighting for a good portion of the day.

 

  This ‘trip’ seemed to take forever, now the only thing on her mind was set, almost haphazardly, on absolutely destroying this human. Certain questions flipped through her mind like, “ _Should I make his death quick? Or painful?_ ” and even “ _How should I kill him_?”

  These thoughts and ideas dissipated about twenty minutes later, as Lilac was noticing in her relaxed position while laying on her back, that wherever the earthling was driving, it was definitely nowhere near the cursed City of Johannesburg, for the tall buildings, street lights, artificial light, nightlife, etcetera - was now completely gone, all of which was replaced by the ghostly light of what the Human’s call their natural satellite, “The Moon”.

  Stars and absolute silence were her company on this long trip - other than the noise of rubber on the now smooth concrete, the steady-low hum of burning diesel fuel from the vehicle’s tank, and passerbyers in their own primitive contraptions with wheels, much like the one she was riding on.

 _I must admit, some of the names they give out are_ too _simple_ , she thought as she reminisced on her own homeworld’s moons that _actually_ had names.

  Her gaze was fixed and perplexed upon the Moon and then the stars for a good ten minutes before the truck progressively slowed down and made a sudden left turn. This action made Lilac squeamishly force all her weight to her back, hoping she could stick to the metal of the bed of the truck and not come crashing into the side of it or grind against the floor, not doubting the human would know something was off.

  It took all of her self-discipline to not get up and look around when she felt the truck go up on a faint incline when it turned onto a different road and the sound of gravel being displaced by the heavy wheels - so she stayed put by pressing herself even harder into the uncomfortable metal.     

  The truck took a drastic, yet smooth decline in speed when it turned onto this pothole and gravel-littered path, probably for good reason too.

  Lilac concentrated her gaze upwards even more so, when she began to see many lavender trees’ leaves and branches covering the -she silently admitted - beautiful, clear-night sky.

  Although Lilac did quickly grow annoyed by the obstructivities in the way of her view but reminded herself that she had a job to do here, and it wasn’t stargazing.

  Gingerly, she rolled onto her belly, scooting quietly over to the driver’s side of the truck’s bed so she could have a better chance at going after the human. After waiting patiently for about a good minute, the large vehicle came to a slow halt, the engine making low, uniformed chugging noises for a few seconds before it was cut off abruptly, which was promptly replaced by the sound of complete, and uncomfortable silence for a little while.

  Lilac grew impatient at why the human wasn’t getting out of his vehicle but that thought was quickly replaced with her body’s natural needs for sustenance.

   _I forgot about those bottles back in the City! I am such a damn fool!_

  She brought up her open hand and smacked herself in the forehead hard for the mistake but instantly regretted punishing herself with her tough claw, as it only added to the pain still pulsing in her head from this human’s blow against her.

  Lilac’s antenna begun to flick wildly in great anticipation, but flattened them as quick as they had come about. Peeping from the edge of the truck’s bed, she looked around for more humans. Lilac was able to look completely around her, but saw nothing in the twilight darkness except for the unkempt lawn that formed a moderately sized hill, leading down to a surrounding of the same Lavender trees bordering the property about three-hundred yards down, and on top of the hill, where Lilac was at, rested a rather small, but simple ‘Triangle House’ - as a human would describe it.

  Upon hearing the truck’s door clicking open and the brief fumbling of the human getting its seatbelt undone, she immediately ducked behind the cover of the truck’s side panel.

   _I’ll get him when he closes the door, so he won’t be able to retreat back in there._

  But things did not go according to plan, as when the human got out, and shut the driver’s side door. The soundwave that came off of it, made Lilac cringe away; she grew frustrated that that made her react in such an uncommon way.

  Soon after, _something_ had quickly overwhelmed her senses and she became extremely nauseous, and her thirst for water with some meat spiked unexpectedly.

  She could literally feel her strength leaving her by the second, as if some unseen force was sucking it out of her and so she became...afraid. An emotion that she had only experienced very few times in her relatively long-lived Life. Lilac confirmed she was experiencing that all-too familiar fear that the darkness around her was getting more veiled and was expanding around her.

  Lilac’s heart was starting to beat harder as if she was sprinting a long distance, unable to stop herself from excreting fearful pheromones around her.

  The female Poleepkwa had completely forgot about why she was even in this place in time. All she wanted to do now, was to be back in the comfort of her own bed back on her planet that was simply too far away and no way to get there in order to become a reality.

  “What the _fuck_?!”

  Lilac felt as if her heart stopped for a few seconds as she froze to her spot when she heard the human’s sudden outburst.

  When the human shouted the unexpected profanity, Lilac found herself staring once again into the green eyes of the human.

  The unforeseen fear from a few moments ago was still very real in her consciousness but for whatever reason, the human making his presence known rather unpleasantly, forced the inkling darkness that was crushing her to recede on a whim. She was _somewhat_ thankful for that to happen, but now she had to deal with this human.

  And now thanks to her foolish alienation, the human was pointing its shotgun at her face from across the separate side panel, with an attached blade at the end of it. She found herself unable to take her eyes off of the humans’ and saw that he was now hastily coming around to her right and was now behind the tailgate.

  He released one of his hands from the shotgun trained on her face, and reached under something that made the tail fall back toward the human with a loud _bang_.

  The human stood there for a few seconds, returning its hand to handle the forestock of its weapon still trained on her, then it made a quick jerk with its gun, pointing it to the ground beside the human and then back at her. “Get out,” it said simply when it made the gesture towards the ground beside itself.

  Lilac could understand the human’s command but was in no mood to do what it said, too afraid to move nor speak.

  Seconds _slowly_ went by when the human made the same gesture to the spot beside it out of the truck, repeating itself with more emphasis, “ _I said_ get out.” Lilac found that she was able to shake her head in refusal slowly, her head still swimming and she was afraid she’d vomit if she moved an inch.

  In response, the human verbally scowled in frustration then promptly clambered into the bed of the truck with Lilac, taking two steps forward while keeping a steady aim at the female Poleepkwa, now standing directly above her. Upon the human taking those two steps towards her, she scooted into the other corner of the truck’s bed in an instant, wanting to put distance between her and this human.

  The Earthling’s eyes narrowed at her in growing frustration as he took another two steps towards her, only this time, it stretched its arms, thrusting the very sharp bayonet close to her face, only a few threatening inches away.

  Normally, Lilac would have defended herself without a second thought, but the catch was, was that she had never been in _this_ particular situation. She _always_ had the upper hand on humans, whether it be she were armed or not. But the fact was that she was still very hungry and dehydration was taking its toll on her body, which only added onto the ever-so present pain still in her head - made her act out-of-character.

  Lilac fought back highly reluctant tears that were forming in her eyes, knowing for sure that her long-lived Life was coming to a monotonous end. _I’m going to die in this fucking shithole at my absolute weakest and lowest…_

  The human prodded her heavily battered and tender faceplate with the tip of its bayonet, Lilac responded by pressing herself as low as possible into the corner of the truck’s bed as the precise prod initiated an electrical-like force that reverberated throughout her skull. She put up her claw-like hands in front of her face, attempting to bat away the intruding human’s weapon while shaking uncontrollably.

  “Please just let me go,” Lilac clicked in between heaving breaths to the human, attempting to press herself further away from the ever-increasing anxiety and fear that this one human would use its weapon to either shoot or thrust. She tried not to tangle with deciding which course of action it would choose, but she couldn’t help it.

  Lilac was simply too afraid of what was to come; almost the same as being unable to wretch yourself from a insomniac-nightmare.

  Wishing she could just melt away from the reality she was in, she forcibly closed her eyes, awaiting for the inevitable. This was quite the effort considering that she was flat-out crying without any care in the Universe, not caring who saw her. She flared gills which made a wheezing sound and her gills, taking in deep breaths in a futile attempt to calm herself; she didn’t want to look like a complete mess when she died.

  However, what happened next surprised her. Lilac still had her eyes closed and her hands in front of her face in a pleading manner, but she heard the human making its way backwards and out the bed of the truck, its footwear making soft padding noises until she felt the truck lurch upwards with the sudden absence of the human’s weight. She opened her eyes to faint slits, only enough to barely see and she saw that the human was now out of the truck, still aiming its gun at her.

  The alien seemed to be contemplating something before finally speaking up in a tired voice, sighing heavily, “Awright look...I ain’t goina’ to shoot you…”, the human lowered its shotgun, “...or hurt you...but you need to get outta my truck, right now…”, then it slowly raised its gun back at Lilac, making little circles with it as the human finished up with saying, “but don’tchu even _think_ about runnin’, because if you do, I won’t hesitate to kill you, do you understand?” The alien then snaked its left arm through the nylon strap of the shotgun, bringing it to its shoulder, wrapping the strap around its neck to let its gun hang loosely, setting the safety on, barrel pointed downwards.

  Lilac could hardly believe what this human had just said as she couldn’t help but let her eyes grow immensely wide with a mixture of shock and relief, folding her arms around herself nervously in a hugging-like fashion, not sure if this human was being genuine with her.

  She could tell that the human was growing pretty impatient when it took off its dirty and soiled peaked-hat with one hand and ran the other through its hair, but she stayed glued to her spot; not to be a peeve, but because she was scared beyond her own rational comprehension and of how weak she was, causing her to stay put.

  The human put his hat back onto its head after he had wiped a fresh batch of sweat that had accumulated on his hair underneath the hat. It stepped forward, putting its hands on the tailgate, clearing its throat, speaking in a calm yet straightforward tone, “You _will_ get yore alien ass outta the bed of this truck...this instant...or I won’t hesitate to bring you _all_ the way back to Multinational-United to arrest you. I shouldn’t even be helping you right now.”

  Lilac heaved her chest as best she could to draw a fresh batch of air into her lungs through the gill-like flaps on her neck; they flared to their max when she drew in the huge breath, then exhaled deeply. Her gills fluttering against the smooth ‘skin’ of her neck which constantly produced a light coating of slick mucus.

  After repeating that process multiple times a confidant she wasn’t going to throw-up in front of the human - she uncurled her arms from around herself and laboriously crawled across the bed of the truck towards the human who was stepping backwards slowly in accordance with her, keeping its distance - and rightfully so.

  Once she got to edge of the tailgate, she planned on getting out like the human told her to, grasping the edge of the tailgate with both of her claws tightly, but when she heaved herself upwards and over the end, she greatly underestimated her own strength by falling right smack-dab to the concrete driveway below.

  But before her head could make contact with the asphalt, she was caught mid-fall by the human who had quickly lunged underneath her with outstretched arms.

  “Ow! Shit, shit, shit, shit...!” The human cursed wildly when he caught and lowered Lilac to the ground softly by her hard and knobby shoulders that protruded into the human’s hands.

  As soon as the human set her on the driveway in a rather uncomfortable position with only Lilac’s face and upper torso on the ground, the human quickly stepped forward to catch the rest of her body which would have come down on top of him if he wasn’t fast enough. The human was being mindful this time, of where it chose to hold her body against his so she may not injure his or herself.

  Once she was lying facedown on the hard ground, the human sort of just...stood back looking down at her dark figure, unsure of what to do next. That was until Lilac spoke up weakly from her spot on the ground in a strained sequence of clicks, “I need water and...food.”

  To her annoyance, the human didn’t move an inch, but just stood where he was.

_He doesn’t even understand me...fucking great._

  Lilac drew her arm slowly up and beneath herself, pushing up off the ground, and turning her face so it was in view for the human.

  Breathing heavily and blinking slowly a few times, she brought her hand up to her mouth that was hidden by tendrils and feelers. Opening her mandibles to do what she had to do was quite the chore, considering the fact that she was still highly fatigued.

  Deliberately, she raises her cirruses along with her palpuses to reveal the cavernous throat she possessed, her claw slightly jabbing into the direction of her throat, indicating that she was hungry and thirsty.

  “Awrighy, I understand now. So here’s what I’m goina to do...I’m gonna help you up, since you don’t look too well to me...and bring you inside…”, the human trailed off from there, as if it regretted what it had said, looking down at her guiltily, their eyes locking onto each other.

  Lilac put down her arm and rested her entire form against the warm concrete.

  “If I bring you inside to fetch you some food and water, will you stay put and not run away or try any funny business?” The human looked to meet Lilac’s tired gaze for confirmation. She closed her eyes, then nodded her head up and down once to say, “Yes”.

  Opening her eyes again, she looked at the human’s own in full-fledged honesty. She wasn’t about to retain her usual prideful stance in Life and refuse aid from this human, not when she was so close in finally nourishing her excruciatingly hungry stomach that was starting to grumble rather embarrassingly loud.

  The human nodded back to Lilac in affirmation, breaking eye contact hesitantly, so he could move and tighten the strap of his shotgun that hung from his shoulder, to hug his back.

  After that, he looked down at Lilac again, putting forth his hands underneath her arm-pits awkwardly, doing his best to avoid eye contact with the female Poleepkwa that persistently stared at everything the human was doing with her.

  It hefted her up onto her feet, but she wasn’t strong enough to walk on her own. She unintentionally proved it by putting all her body weight onto the human while slouching a little, badly accommodating the human’s smaller height.

  But once the human stood upright, they stopped; the earthling quickly moved from behind Lilac, to her side, and grabbed her arm fairly uncomfortably, and yanked it around the back of its neck to walk beside her while supporting her rapidly declining state of health.

 

<—I—>

 

  _Fucking shit! I didn’t realize prawns could be so heavy!_

  Washington trudged onwards to his new Triangle-framed house with the prawn in-tow that was weighing him down considerably, but finally managed to make it to the front steps of the house’s door.

  He stopped and looked up to the prawn who dwarfed him easily by one foot; the non-human looked to be almost asleep due to her eyes being closed, and with all the weight that was on him, it certainly felt like this prawn he was helping _was_ asleep. Except that when they were walking together, the extraterrestrial was dragging its weird-looking feet alongside him, which debunked his suspicion that the alien was sleeping.

  The Marine couldn’t really ever make out the details of this prawn he ultimately decided to help, but he knew that it was the same one he had almost killed and the same one that almost had killed him, so he _really_ had to kick in some extra brain power to think about helping his enemy.

  As the Lieutenant was standing there staring at the prawn for a good twenty seconds, it ‘spoke’ up without any warning, startling Washington to the point where he almost accidently let go of the alien he was pretty much carrying.

  The prawn made a few different guttural sounds and clicks, its mandibles partially hidden by the impending darkness and the insect-like tendrils on the prawn’s face. None of what it said had many any sense to Washington, but he knew that it could at least understand what _he_ said. _At least some of what I say_ , he thought with irritation.

  The Lieutenant grumily looked down at himself, completely forgetting that he had the house key in his unruly-torn dress blues and proceeded to reach down with his free hand to scoop it up from the pouch, still carrying the heavy-ass prawn.

  Successfully grappling the key, he stepped forward, as did the non-human, and he inserted it into the dark, cut out slit made specifically for this key alone.

  Twisting it to the left, which made a satisfactory _click_ , signifying that the door to Washington’s new home was now unlocked, he took a deep breath through his nose and exhaled noisily through his mouth as he retracted the key and put it back into his pocket. Washington felt the alien was starting to slip off of him - probably due to exhaustion.

  He readjusted and strengthened his grip of the nearly-overbearing weight of the weak prawn by lifting it up using his back and her arm as leverage to get her back on track.

  Taking the first step forward into the relatively new triangular home, followed sluggishly by the extremely tired prawn, he knew that there was no coming back from what he has done.

  He hoped that this highly risky decision of allowing a hostile extraterrestrial into his home in order to help it was going to be worthwhile.

 

 _To be Continued_ _….._

  

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright y’all, I am extremely sorry for holding out on all y’all, but I reckon it was worth the wait because I had to constantly revise it in order to keep the story true to the quote and the overall plot that I have planned.  
> I don’t know if it’ll take as long, shorter, or even longer to post chapter three, but we’ll have to wait and see because I do put forth everything I got into each chapter. (I hate it when Authors or people I follow on social media shit-post, I’d much rather no hear from them in a while and get some amazing content, rather than constant, shitty content.  
> Anyways, I haven’t begun drawing any art for this series yet BUT I will start sometime this week! Just remember that when I say I’ma do something, I’m going to do it; so please have faith in me fellow reader <3  
> By the way, I will begin writing a Aliens fanfiction as soon as I upload this since I have recently been delving deep into the very abyss of the ‘Hive’ of Xenomorphs and the Alien franchise. So the deal is that I will upload one chapter of ‘A Journey of Hope’ and then one chapter of...I haven’t thought up of a name for the Alien fanfic. I’m about to start writing it now since I already have a really good plot written out and all.  
> In conclusion, I want to let all y’all know that I have become Xenomorph and I serve the Hive and Queen now. We really just want to be left alone by all the drama of the Universe; so to all humans and all other Lifeforms passing by our planet: do not come here unless you have a death wish or would like to serve us. That is all.


	3. TAKE NOTICE

**IMPORTANT NOTICE:** **  
** **_Friday, November 2nd, 2018_ ** **_  
  
_ **

**Okay** , so I’ve been getting many DM’s and comments from people who are asking when the next update is happening.  Well obviously they haven’t taken the time to go to my profile bio to see what I’ve put in there, so I’m going to have to reiterate it into this update notice:   
  I am no longer going to upload chapters for any of my stories nor upload any possible new ones. This is because I want to focus on writing one story at a time and when said story is completed, then I will upload that fic in all of its finished glory onto here and move on to the next uncompleted story.   
  Now obviously, this is going to take a very long time and I probably won’t post anything story-wise for at least one year.   
  And for those of you who are interested in my personal life since my last update, I will disclose what information I am willing to give out:   
  I was discharged from the US Marines a couple of days before I even shipped out for boot camp back in July of this year. This is because I had to go to court in another state for something I did nearly six years ago.  And when I got back from resolving it, I had to show my recruiters the court documents and they had to turn me down immediately.   
  I spent literally - this is no exaggeration - all of my life dreaming and preparing to become a Marine; to earn the EGA (Eagle, Globe, & Anchor).  And in what I did back then, which lasted only ten minutes, it unknowingly screwed me over for the rest of my life.   
  However, I couldn’t let this get me down forever, so after maybe two months or three, of feeling sorry for myself and letting myself go physically off-and-on, I decided to see if maybe the other branches of the Military would be more mercifical/slacked in their recruiting standards.   
  I went to speak with the Navy recruiter and I straight up told him and showed him my court documents of what happened, so I wouldn’t be beating around the bush in any way.  The good news is, is that he didn’t turn me down upon reading what I did, so there’s hope for me yet.   
  I’m currently getting signature references from my peers at this moment, then I will return to this recruiter and he will give those reference sheets to the top recruiting brass. I really hope that the Navy will accept me, but if not? Then I’ll try out for the other branches.   
  I know some people are going to ask what it was that I did and depending on who you are, I will most likely decline in disclosing said information. What I did was easily the worst thing I’ve ever done in my whole life and I don’t talk about that mistake lightly.   
  Okay I’m done here.

**Author's Note:**

> Note to Reader: Know that I will be posting these chapters to my Deviantart Account with my own art, which will all be specifically for each chapter I write. So for those of y’all who are more ‘visual’ people like me, head over there. But please be patient with me writing my chapters for this story and the art for it over at Deviantart; because I am currently a full-time student, working a part-time job, producing a Halo: Machinima, and getting physically prepared to begin my Journey as a United States Marine.  
> Thank You for reading! PM me if you’d like to ask me anything or just talk, just know that I am very busy but WILL get back to you as soon as I can.  
> Love, Officer Cone


End file.
